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A1 Ring Report
Prior to this round elf was leading by a handy 15 points with lotus 2nd. Lotus was using his Rindt tribute livery for the 2nd race and was determind to win. Qualiflying Lotus took another pole by a near second over teamate elf with Mugen sam lepe following. A Surpise addition was Virs VRS001 who finally made the cut a great day for the very small VRS team. Race the LFRs took off the line with Lotus leading much to the delight of the fans elf was 2nd but made a surprising decision by pitting lap 1 which proved to be the best decision with a red flag being waved. Lotus was very frustrated as he was in the process of pitting and was further angered by Mugen and sam by causing a red flag. At the restart Lotus led with elf moving to 2nd after contact at the start Lotus tried to build a gap to the field but only managed about 6 seconds which wasn't enough so Lotus pitted and came out 4th which did not please the brit. After a couple more yellows the race was back with lotus instantly passing Mugen for 3rd then lined up sam and passed him 1 lap later after sam made an error. Mugen almost got passed too but had to cancel the move luckily for him sam had to pit this dropped him to 5th behind lepe who was close to being lapped and soon enough the LFR's lapped sam and lepe after lapping vir for the 2nd time. Lotus was closing elf thanks to the help off the fans who were spurring him on. Lotus chased down elf thanks to his great laps on his way when he caught up with 3 laps to go drama as elf cut lotus off at the final turn whcih cost lotus 5 seconds. Incredibly lotus made up 4 of the 5 but didnt have the laps to catch elf and pass him so therefore elf took another win which he dedicated to his home town lotus took a frustrating and disapointing 2nd Mugen took a great 3rd for SA lepe 4th sam 5th and a point for the small VRS team. At the podium lotus made his feeling clear as his expressions showed his disapointment after the trophey handings out lotus walked off the podium clearly devastiatingly disapointed. Interviews Q: elf another win this season and especially after some news of a helicopter crash at your home town how do you feel? A: Very happy and a bit emotional after hearing the news i debated on whether i should race but at the end i decided to race and go for the win and thanks to the teams stragety we did it also i'd like to thank everyone for doing a minuite silence before the race it meant a lot to me so thanks. Q: Lotus a disspointing 2nd after having being caught out by the red flags and then losing out after the pitstops how do you feel? A: Well obviously im very dissapointed but i think i'd take this 2nd than the 4th i would of got had i not pushed at the end. Annoying thing for me was the red flag and the fact elf pitted on lap one and didnt get caught out by the red, that really frustrated me and then we had more reds and yellows which was annoying but eventually we were racing again. But i didnt have enough pace to pull a good enough gap so i came out 4th and i realised i had to really push but thanks to the help of the fans who were really supportive today i managed to move to 2nd but i was unable to pass elf. But i hope i put a good show for the fans and i hope this 2nd adding on with the win at long beach made a good tribute to Jochen. I'd also like to thank the fans for thier support this weekend seeing so many cheering me on really motivated me on to try and win. Q: Mugen a good 3rd today do you think you may have got 2nd? A: Not really the car couldnt match the LFR's pace today but i'm happy we beat main rivals SGP so i'd take this 3rd today. Q: How was the car for you was there any issues? A: it was pretty good we did have a bit of a steering issue but thanks to the teams effort during the reds we solved that and managed to claim a podium today. Q: Lotus i'm not sure you realise but with yours and elfs points today you take the constructors title for the 2nd season running how does that feel to you and the team? A: Well we already knew so were gonna have a big party later on. Anyway to take the constructors again means a lot for me and guys at the factory all our efforts put in this season really helped us dominate this season and take the title so i'd like to thank the guys at the factory for helping us achieve the 2nd constructors title. Q: Elf same question to you how do you feel with the team taking a 2nd constructors title. Very happy this means a lot to the guys at the garage and the factory and the sponsers so yeah this means a lot to all of us. So i'd like to thank all the guys down there who helped us achieve this.